Having watched Ray Winstone star in Tim Roth's directorial debut, 'The War Zone', a couple of weeks back - where he played an incestuous father abusing his daughter - I thought there was a good chance of something similarly shocking on the way in this, Gary Oldman's debut behind the camera. I wasn't wrong. As one destructive scene follows the other, it is really worth making a mental note of trying to avoid everything to do with Ray Winstone when he's in a bad mood. He's one scary fella.
For all the epic scenes in this film though, there is some real indulgence on Oldman's part and "cut" should really have been yelled a lot sooner on a few occasions. The amount of times we see some loser addict shooting up gets ridiculous, Ray's breakdown scene with the phone and the mirror is well acted, sure, but goes on forever, plus Billy is allowed to talk AT LENGTH about some dog he had when he was a child. There are quite a few scenes which are dragged out similar to these - the editing just wasn't up to scratch, and the momentum drops sharply particularly when Billy is in the film.
And for all the world it seemed as though the ending would come following Val's speech to Ray outside the flat where she puts him firmly in place. Such a fitting ending I thought. But no. There follows a scene in the kitchen where everybody's having a laugh and playing happy families. Didn't fit at all.
I've given 'Nil By Mouth' 7 out of 10 - it is a heavyweight British effort that everybody should take a look at - but that doesn't mean I'd go near it again. Once is definitely enough.
For all the epic scenes in this film though, there is some real indulgence on Oldman's part and "cut" should really have been yelled a lot sooner on a few occasions. The amount of times we see some loser addict shooting up gets ridiculous, Ray's breakdown scene with the phone and the mirror is well acted, sure, but goes on forever, plus Billy is allowed to talk AT LENGTH about some dog he had when he was a child. There are quite a few scenes which are dragged out similar to these - the editing just wasn't up to scratch, and the momentum drops sharply particularly when Billy is in the film.
And for all the world it seemed as though the ending would come following Val's speech to Ray outside the flat where she puts him firmly in place. Such a fitting ending I thought. But no. There follows a scene in the kitchen where everybody's having a laugh and playing happy families. Didn't fit at all.
I've given 'Nil By Mouth' 7 out of 10 - it is a heavyweight British effort that everybody should take a look at - but that doesn't mean I'd go near it again. Once is definitely enough.